A night under the stars, savoring the great outdoors — amazing, right? Except for the bugs, the heat, the rustic restrooms and, of course, that whole sleeping-on-the-ground thing.

If that sentiment resonates, there is a luxury tent in south Polk County with your name on it. It is one of 10 that boast air conditioning, mini-fridges, microwaves, real furniture and private bathrooms nearby. Campers can relax in rocking chairs on the porch, nestled under a canopy of Spanish moss.

Welcome to Westgate River Ranch Resort, billed by its owners as the largest dude ranch east of the Mississippi. Orlando-based Westgate Resorts, the large time-share company owned by David Siegel, has pumped $3 million into the long-neglected resort during the past eight months, and the new, improved version is to debut during a grand-reopening weekend that starts today.

Glamorous camping — or "glamping" — is just one of many things on the menu at the newly renovated ranch, which boasts cabins, RV hookups, tent sites and hotel rooms. But Mark Waltrip, Westgate's chief operating officer, expects the luxury-tent installations to rank high among the reservations.

"I honestly think this will be the most popular unit in the ranch, particularly in the wintertime," Waltrip said. "This gives Momma a chance to camp but not get her boots dirty."

The high-end campsites capitalize on a trend among vacationing families and couples: They want to escape to nature, but the idea of pitching a tent and roughing it holds less appeal for them than it may have for their parents or grandparents.

"More and more, people are working," said Ruben Martinez, co-founder of GlampingHub.com, a website for booking outdoor accommodations. "There's not as much time as people had 50 years ago to do the traditional camping."

With glamping, you can escape the city and experience the outdoors without sacrificing comfort.

"You get what you truly want out of camping, and you leave the stuff you don't really like behind," Martinez said.

His website features 700 luxury-camping locations — from a yurt in Arizona for $30 a night to an African safari tent in Namibia that starts at $3,996 a night. Some of the operations are independently owned, but hotel chains are getting in on the trend as well, he said.

"If they have the land, they're seeing that it is cost-effective," he noted. "It's not as expensive as putting up a whole new building. And people like it."

Westgate's "glampsites," which rent for $150 to $199 a night, aren't the only thing new at the 1,700-acre ranch.

Workers were busy this week installing a new, 18-hole miniature-golf course next to a 30-foot-high rock-climbing wall and a 300-foot-long zip line. The refurbished saloon — once the local hangout for a rough-and-tumble crowd out in Polk County cattle country — now boasts that it is a family-friendly establishment until 10 p.m.

Siegel bought River Ranch at auction more than a decade ago. He restored the ranch's 1,200-seat rodeo arena — which has shows every Saturday night — and built cabins on the site, some of which were sold as time shares.

But things slowed down during the Great Recession, and when the global financial crisis led to a clamping down on credit in 2008-09, the company stopped active time-share sales at the resort.

The ranch has continued to host families and corporate groups, however, with a few weddings sprinkled in. There is ropes course for team-building exercises and a nine-hole golf course. There are also ranch hands and skeet shooting, and horses and buffalo roaming the grounds. The décor of the rooms is heavy with cowboy culture.

But "Western" isn't the word you want to use to describe this dude ranch — Waltrip is quick to remind visitors that men on horseback were herding cows in Florida long before cowboys were driving cattle from Texas to Kansas in the late 19th century.

"I really want the guests to feel like they're in a real, working ranch," he said. "I want them to feel like they stepped into a part of Florida's history."